White House doubles down on ESPN attacks, cites previous 'suspension' as reason Jemele Hill should be fired

For the second time in three days, the White House press
secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has gone in on ESPN and "SC6"
anchor Jemele Hill for her tweet calling President Donald Trump
"a white supremacist."

Sanders responded that the real story was that ESPN had been
hypocritical in how it punished employees.

"They should hold anchors to a fair and consistent standard,"
Sanders said. "ESPN suspended longtime anchor Linda Cohn not too
long ago for expressing a political viewpoint ... This is clearly
a political statement. They should be consistent in whatever
guidelines that they have set themselves in that front."

As Business Insider's Scott Davis reported on
Thursday, Cohn was not suspended but was told to take a day
off. And while that part may be semantics, she was not
reprimanded for "expressing a political viewpoint" but for
criticizing ESPN's business decisions.

Sanders was also asked whether she stood by her earlier
statement that she felt Hill's comments were a "fireable
offense." She said she did and again cited Cohn's suspension as a
reason to fire Hill.

"Again, I think that they laid that out themselves by suspending
one of their own anchors for political comments," Sanders said.

Sanders later added: "I think it is a fireable offense based on
the standard that ESPN has set themselves by saying that people
that go too far and make political comments have been suspended
from their own network. I think that that is a consistency that
they should probably focus on."

Sanders never clarified why the suspension of one anchor would
mean Hill should be fired.

A report on Thursday said ESPN tried to keep Hill off
the air on Wednesday but changed its mind when her cohost,
Michael Smith, refused to do the show without her and the network
couldn't find two suitable replacements. ESPN emphatically denied
that it had asked anybody to replace Hill on air.